Oh, Be Clever – New Artist Q&A

The band consists of Brittney Shields and Cory Scott Layton who were both members in two different bands prior to creating Oh, Be Clever. The band states they formed one night when the two bands were arguing to the point of physical violence and the two of them walked away and talked and ended up telling their other bands that they were leaving and then went on to form their current band which consists of just them. Their genre can’t be filed under just one but it can generally be described as indie, electronic, and alternative respectively. They are from Salt Lake City, UT. Their goal is to create a new and different sound from their previous bands and that is exactly what they are doing. Come join this duo on their journey to create a sound that is sure to spark their audience.

Substream Magazine: Please introduce yourselves. What are your names? What instrument(s) do you play?

Brittney Shields: I’m Brittney Shields and I am the vocal magician and lyricist. Cory Layton is the wizard behind all the magic…aka the producer and cowriter!

SM: What made you want to start a band together?

BS: We had an interesting start…both of us were in bands prior to Oh, Be Clever, but situations lead us to form a band with one another! We jammed together one time and just knew it was a perfect fit.

SM: Which musicians do you admire the most?

BS: Musicians that I will always be obsessed with would be Dave Grohl, Stevie Nicks, David Gilmour, David Bowie, Annie Lennox, Bjork and Alt-J. They’re all BRILLIANT artists and musicians.

SM: How long have you been playing your instrument(s) and to the vocalist, how long have you been singing?
BS: Cory started to learn the guitar at a pretty young age…I wanna say 15? I have been singing since I could breathe. It’s funny that this is actually the route I ended up taking…when I was younger, my father was convinced I was gonna be tone deaf. haha!

SM: What do you do when you aren’t practicing?BS: WORK. We are CONSTANTLY writing and learning the art of it. We also have little day jobs so we can fund touring…that’s our biggest focus right now. Writing and getting our music out on the road.
SM: How do you classify your genre of music that you create? Why/How did you choose this?

BS: That’s always such a hard question. We have so many influences..and, to me, our music could be set in MULTIPLE genres. But I suppose if I had to name a few, I’d say alternative, indie-pop.

SM: What are some bands you would like to tour with?
BS: M83. CHVRCHES. Ellie Goulding. Meg Myers. Passion Pit. Phantogram. Eurhythmics, if that was still a thing. 😉

SM: What was it like departing your previous bands to create this one?BS: It was so easy for us. There was so much drama circling both groups that we decided we needed a little room to breathe and create. There was no question at all for both of us.

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